Bill Maher Defends Booking Gay Conservative Milo Yiannopoulos

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On Top Magazine Staff

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February 17, 2017

Bill Maher is defending his decision to
book Milo Yiannopoulos as a guest on his HBO talk show after a
journalist dropped out of the show in protest.

Jeremy Scahill said on Wednesday that
he would not appear on the show on Friday as scheduled, saying that
there was no value in debating Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart
News, the right-wing website with close ties to President Donald
Trump.

“He has many venues to spew his
hateful diatribes,” Scahill wrote. “There is no value in
‘debating’ him. Appearing on Real Time will provide
Yiannopoulos with a large, important platform to openly advocate his
racist, anti-immigrant campaign. It will be exploited by Yiannopoulos
in an attempt to legitimize his hateful agenda. Yiannopoulos’s
appearance could also be used to incite violence against immigrants,
transgender people, and others at a time when the Trump
administration is already seeking to formalize a war against some of
the most vulnerable people in our society.”

Scahill added that he disagrees with,
and finds offensive, some of Maher's views, “particularly when his
comments on Islam and Muslims veer into vitriol.”

“My comments on Islam have never
veered into vitriol,” Maher said in a statement given to
Entertainment Weekly. “Liberals will continue to lose
elections as long as they follow the example of people like Mr.
Scahill whose views veer into fantasy and away from bedrock liberal
principles like equality of women, respect for minorities, separation
of religion and state, and free speech. If Mr. Yiannopoulos is indeed
the monster Scahill claims – and he might be – nothing could
serve the liberal cause better than having him exposed on Friday
night.”

Yiannopoulos, 32, has been called a
spokesperson for the alt-right, which he denies. While gay, he has
called gay rights detrimental to humanity and is opposed to marriage
equality. Last year, Twitter permanently banned Yiannopoulos for
“inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of
others.”

Scahill will be replaced on the program
by MSNBC terrorism analyst Malcolm Nance.